Joining in, again,
with the 5 minute Friday
community
at Gypsy Mama
the goal?
write for 5 minutes
without stopping
on one topic...
no correcting...
no cut and pasting...
no revisions...
the topic?
TRUST
GO
Do I trust Him or me? To I sell out to "playing it safe" or do I wholeheartedly jump in with reckless trust?
The irony? It's in the reckless trust that I'm safest.
Moses. The man God chose to free the Israelites. The man God chose to use in mighty, mighty ways. The man God chose to get under Pharoah's skin.
This Moses. He spent 40 years in a dead-end job. He worked for his father-in-law shepherding his sheep. Poor guy! Oh yeah, it was his own fault. He killed an Egyptian and ran away.
This Moses was hiding in a sheep field working a dead-end job keeping his in-laws happy when God suddenly came down right in front of his face... in a desert bush that burned without burning up.
Moses!
The thing that strikes me the most, lately, is that God commanded Moses to throw down his staff. His staff... the one thing that identified who he was. It was his weapon against prowlers, his tool to guide his sheep, and his identity to those who saw him. After 40 years, it probably became a very real part of who Moses was.
"What's that in your hand?" God asked.
"A staff." I wonder what Moses was thinking. It's probably not polite to say "Duh, God!"
"Throw it down!"
Ummm... ok... but really? It's just a staff. A piece of wood. But... it's MY staff... my piece of wood... my identity.
I wonder how many times God tells me to let go of something and I don't. I want to be a Moses... I want to trust Him and let go of the very things that identify who I am.
Why?
Because that staff turned into a snake!! Yep. Moses' God, my God... maybe your God.. He does stuff like that. Moses' identity turned into God's identity. God used it to change history. No longer just a shepherd's staff... this staff turned snake turned staff again became God's tool, not Moses'. A mighty, Mighty tool, too!
STOP
** a little disclaimer... I just learned that I'm lousy at exercises like this... I never realized that I use my "delete" aka "backspace" button like a regular button on my keyboard. Without stopping to think, I reach up and backspace and correct myself all the time! Ooops... so there are still probably big errors because I haven't proofed this... I fail miserably at the no correction thing.
also... I loose track of time when I write. This was 8 minutes.
.... much to learn!
Beautifully written.
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard to lay down what we most strongly identify with and let God take control. It does take reckless trust.:-)
what a wonderful example!! Thank you. {don't worry about the backspace, you got your thoughts flowing and that's enough. I always add my pictures after my five minutes, so we're all winging it as we go :) }
ReplyDeleteThis is great - I set a timer and don't usually go over, but I do add pictures after the five minutes.
ReplyDeleteI love the whole Moses' staff being his identity. I never thought of it that way. He does that, you know, asks us to let go of OUR identity so HE can work. This was truly an amazing post.
Thanks for sharing.
Mary
I've never heard this about the staff! That is so cool! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete